The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-06-16
Old Towns Full Of New Life.


Speaking Of booms, and especial
ly of southern booms, we are re-
minded of the great benefit the late
business activity has been to some
of the delightful old towns and
small cities of the south. Since
the close of the civil! war there has
been an air of genteel decay about
many of these old and once very
wealthy places that was sorrowful
to contemplate. Gradually the ma
tural dependency brought by the
destruction Of the conflict began to
disappear as the old generation
dropped out and gave room for
younger and more adaptable men.
This process of replacement, going
on for score Of years, has renewed
the business element. 1t has put
into the commercial life of the old
towns class of men who have
more than half their lives to look
forward to. Naturally these men
have their faces to the front, are
not mourning over the losses OF
their fathers and grandfathers, but
intent on schemes intended to build
anew the waste places, 10 make the
old plantations more profitable
than in the days of slavery; and
above all is the spirit of develop
ment in the young heirs of the old
south. They are not content to
alone grow cotton; they would spin
it, weave it into fabrics, crush the
seed and extract from it the oil now
become an important material of
national commerce. The new men
are not satisfied with gazing on the
mountains from front verandahs
through clouds Of perfumed cigar
smoke, they look on them as among
the richest areas Of our section.
Grand scenery is well in its way,
and good to help while away leis
ure hour or a half holiday, but the
wealth the beetling cliff covers il
| the form of coal and iron ore
these are now a big section Of the
south's capital and her younger
| generation is alert to make the most
Of their buried heritage. The cot
ton mill, the oil mill, the furnace,
the foundery, the rolling mill
these have replaced in the sons re
gard the high position held in the
fathers Of broad acres, battalions
| of slaves. liyerIed servants and
lives of leisure.
The new south is simply the final
adoption of people to new sys-
tenn Of labor, necessitating new
methods, new channels of enfeavor,
new social ways, new educational
systems. But the grandest thing
in the new south is her determina-
ton to be industrially independent,
to have something beside cotton to
sell, and to buy less and less of the
necessaries of life every year. The
moving Of this spirit of change, OF
diversity of pursuits and products,
of adventure in new fields-thls is
what has put new life and mettle
into the old towns of Georgia, Ten
nessee, Alabama, Virginia, the Car
olinas, Mississippi and Louisiana
There are few more lively OF
hopeful communities in the world
than some Of these battered and
broken old seats of southern arts
tocracy that looked so seedy and
forlorn and pitiful from 1866 until
within a few years back. They are
becoming seats Of the spinning
trade, the location of great oil
mills, the sites or supply bases Of
furnaces and coal mines. The
stately and exclusive college and
ladies' seminary have given way OF
become a secondary consideration
to the public schools, where the
masses of the peoples children are
taught the rudiments Of an English
education. Industry has supplant
ed sloth, activity gives no time fol
despair. The struggle to get NJ
and on in the world has run The
people over and fast outgrown the
cries of lite and forced them to for
get that The goodly and easy for
tunes of their ancestors were swept
away by the bosom of cruel, relent
less war, and that the broom in
brushing out the wealth of the old
south sent its systems, institutions
everything but its noble manhood
and womanhood along with the
social and industrial Debris
Tradesman.